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The last Damon’s Grill & Sports Bar in central Ohio will close next weekend and reopen
within a few weeks under different names.

Co-owners Pam Allison and her husband, Terry, plan to reopen their restaurant and banquet room
at 1486 Granville Rd. in Newark in the week or so after the closing. The new names will be Allison’s
Pub & Grub and Crave Catering & Banquets.

After the closing, only two Damon’s will remain in Ohio — in Steubenville and Wilmington. The
once-thriving chain of sports bars has 10 other locations, in Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Damon’s was founded in Columbus in 1979, growing through the 1980s and 1990s because it was on
the cutting edge of the TV sports-bar concept and among the few Northern chains serving ribs. But
over time, sports bars cropped up on almost every corner, and many restaurants started serving
ribs.

“It was a chain that failed to evolve over the years,” said Dennis Lombardi, executive vice
president of food-service strategies at WD Partners, the Columbus restaurant consulting firm. “And
their original point of difference, which was their sports-viewing area, became dated and
fundamentally noncompetitive.”

In August, Damon’s bankruptcy court trustee agreed to sell the chain’s remaining assets —
including its franchise agreement with the Allisons — for $610,000 to a subsidiary of Hurricane AMT
of West Palm Beach, Fla., according to filings at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western
District of Pennsylvania.

Hurricane AMT operates

61 Hurricane Grille & Wings Restaurants in 14 states but none in Ohio, and it has
substantial experience in the franchise-restaurant industry, according to the filings. John Metz,
CEO of Hurricane, also owns dozens of Denny’s and Dairy Queen franchises.

The new owner may have the strategic marketing and operations expertise — and the clout of a
large purchasing group — to help franchisees such as the Allisons. But the Allisons won’t be a part
of the reorganized Damon’s.

“It’s not the end,” Pam Allison said. “It’s the beginning of a new great thing, I’m hoping.”

The Allisons can’t offer Damon’s-style ribs or onion loaf after the Oct. 27 closing because
their franchise agreement prohibits it.

“We’re hoping to touch those people who are thinking: ‘Damon’s ribs ... Damon’s onion loaf. We
gotta get them now,’ ” Pam Allison said of the last days of her Damon’s.

The Allisons are abandoning the Damon’s name because their business has dwindled, partly because
of negative publicity caused by their franchisor’s bankruptcy filing in 2009. The two also continue
to pay royalties to Damon’s International, even though they get nothing from the franchising
company, they said.

Messages left at Damon’s International in Columbus were not returned.

The Allisons, who own two other restaurants in Newark and Mount Vernon, have not yet decided on
new menus for their former Damon’s. They plan to keep the big-screen TVs and sports broadcasts for
which Damon’s is known, but they want to create a more publike atmosphere with six rotating craft
beers on tap, Allison said.